Press Releases

September 29, 2021 (Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means and is Chairman of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, testified earlier today before the House Rules Committee about the need to raise the federal debt limit. Beyer’s remarks as prepared follow below (remarks as delivered here).

The Joint Economic Committee issued a new report earlier this week on the debt limit and the possible consequences of a default, stating that “breaching the debt ceiling and defaulting on federal debt would cause an economic catastrophe,” felt by most Americans, potentially resulting in a new recession and the loss of millions of jobs. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently wrote to Congress that the federal government could run out of money to pay its existing debts as soon as October 18.

The Rules Committee hearing preceded Floor consideration of S. 1301, which would suspend the debt limit until December 17, 2022. The measure is very similar to legislation Congress passed in September of 2017, when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House and had recently used the reconciliation process to attempt repeal of the Affordable Care Act and to begin writing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That debt limit suspension won unanimous support from Democrats in both House and Senate.

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“Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Defaulting on the federal debt would create a financial crisis on par with that of 2008, resulting in catastrophic economic damage with millions of jobs lost, businesses shuttered, and a banking system in chaos. 

Nonpartisan Moody’s Analytics economist Mark Zandi predicted that following a default, a global market panic on the scale of the 2008 financial crisis would ensue, which could result in a loss of six million jobs, an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, the elimination of $15 trillion in household wealth, and a decline in real GDP of 4%.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon predicted that such a default “could cause an immediate, literally cascading catastrophe of unbelievable proportions and damage [to] America for 100 years.”

Default would likely prompt a lasting downgrade of the country’s credit, drastically increasing costs for car loans, mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit card bills and other borrowing.

The debt limit does not incur new debts but rather allows payment of existing debts. Failure to raise the debt ceiling would make it impossible for the federal government to keep its commitments in areas of government spending such as the military, veterans, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. 

97% of the debts currently necessitating an increase were accrued prior to the Biden administration, many of which were passed with bipartisan support, including emergency pandemic relief measures, increased defense spending and continued government operations.

The time to act is now. Yesterday, Secretary Yellen announced that by October 18th our country is estimated to exhaust extraordinary measures and cash on hand, leaving us barreling towards a default.

In just three weeks, the Treasury Department would be unable to pay a substantial portion of its bills in full and on time. Nearly 50 million seniors could stop receiving Social Security checks for a time. Troops could go unpaid. Millions of families who rely on the monthly Child Tax Credit could see delays.

Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.

As the 2011 debt ceiling crisis shows, even narrowly avoiding a default costs the country billions of dollars. While raising the debt ceiling does not, on its own, create new debts for the United States government, a failure to do so certainly would.

Congress has addressed the debt limit 78 times since 1960 to prevent default – 29 times with a Democrat in the White House, and 49 times under a Republican president.

I urge passage of this rule today, and urge my colleagues to pass the bill later today to raise the debt limit.”